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Is this system worth using for Mame cab?
creatine28:
Just wondering if anybody has any thoughts about using this system for a Mame Cab? Seems pretty cheap for a 1.7 ghz!
http://www.softwareandstuff.com/dsk_p4mfp533cel17cd.html
CitznFish:
I wouldn't.
what will you use to view the games? TV? Monitor(doesn't come with one)? Arcade Monitor (expensive!)
If you're using a TV you will want an AGP card with S-video out.
What about Sound? I dunno if MAME works with onboard sound cards. again, best bet is to pick up an SoundBlaster16 or Live!
I thought RAM should be 256 minimum. There are several threads that talk about more RAM being pretty beneficial when running MAME
look here:
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=33
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=245
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=2474
Odonadon:
--- Quote from: creatine28 on March 06, 2003, 07:27:55 pm ---Just wondering if anybody has any thoughts about using this system for a Mame Cab? Seems pretty cheap for a 1.7 ghz!
http://www.softwareandstuff.com/dsk_p4mfp533cel17cd.html
--- End quote ---
It depends. What games are you interested in playing? I picked up an K6-3 450MHz, 128Mb RAM, Radeon 7500 64Mb, Sound Blaster 16, and a 350 watt PS for less than that.
Having built-in audio means less CPU power for MAME, because the CPU has to control the sound as well. Built in video means you're losing the 32Mb of RAM to video. So you'll effectively be running with 96Mb RAM.
I know this is a discussion for another topic, but I don't recommend going the S-video route. There's a site (can't remember URL, but it's on oscarcontrols somewhere) that compares video from s-video, composite, arcade, and PC monitors. There's also a link to another page that explains colour bleeding is more arcade authentic. PC monitors and S-video TVs look too good. Plus, you'll save yourself money. With composite, you'll get the bleeding, and a nice picture to boot for a cheap price
But then again, that's just one man's opinion.
Odonadon
spidermonkey:
On board graphics controller :Pand onboard sound ? :P ... Celeron processor ? :P The only reason I would ever put that thing in a mame cabinet is if the cabinet was top heavy and I needed to add some weight in the bottom to make it more stable. A cinder block works just as well and is much cheaper. STAY AWAY !!!! I learned the hard way.
rampy:
FWIW, if you were going to go that cheap and had to install the os, swap in/out video/audio cards you might as well build a system from scratch with better components...
The machine you've linked to is better than my machine, but in the long run you'll probably have issues/be dissapointed.
Rampy